Romania: Protesters Interrupt Screening of Gay/AIDS Movie 'BPM'

Protesters have interrupted a screening of a French AIDS drama in Bucharest, saying it violates traditional Romanian values.

Footage posted on social media shows a handful of protesters who called themselves Christian Orthodox bursting into a movie theater at the Romanian Peasant Museum Sunday evening during a showing of "120 Beats Per Minute."

Protesters sang the national anthem and religious songs while others held religious icons and banners saying: "Romania isn't Sodom" and "Hey Soros, leave them kids alone," referring to Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros.

The film, set in Paris in the 1990s, explores homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic. It won the Grand Prize from the jury at Cannes in 2017.

The protesters said they objected to the film being shown at the museum because "the Romanian peasant is a Christian Orthodox."

Gay rights group MozaiQ on Monday issued a statement "condemning the extreme gestures of some ultra-Orthodox and conservative groups ... who propagate hate against the LGBT community," and called on Romanian politicians to "send a more decisive signal to society that discrimination is not acceptable."

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